Pilot Study

Table 5. Demographic information of the sample

Table 5. Demographic information of the sample

Females 10

Males 15

Nationalities 9

Brazil, Bhutan, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Peru, Poland Participant countries 3 Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary

Minimum years of experience 3

Maximum years of experience 40

Median years of experience 9

Minimum number of jobs in the field 1 Maximum number of jobs in the field 18* ³

Source: Researcher

the study sought to deepen current understanding into the phenomenon of ‘boundary crossing’, and the methods of acquisition of knowledge by which HR professionals - who may or may not necessarily have higher education portfolios directly relevant to this field - engaged in skill-building in order to execute their assigned duties.

In this context, boundaries were defined as socio-cultural differences that inhibit action and interaction between members of different backgrounds, disciplines and, in this case, professions (Akkerman & Baker, 2011). As explained by Engestrom et al (1995), boundary crossing could be understood as the practice of “negotiating and combining ingredients from different contexts to achieve hybrid situations’’ (p. 319). This process can refer to interactions between people, objects and different practices (Akkerman & Baker, 2011, p.1).

The study considered a hybrid state as the new normal of the HR industry, with few existing formal education programs which may objectively or practically prepare their graduates in most, if not all, skills vital to the execution of their expected roles in a professional organization. In order to study this phenomenon within the constraints of its practical limitations, the study first reviewed existing literature on the field to outline not only the changing nature of the contemporary workplace - wherein professionals may need to switch occupational categories, regardless of their original field of training, based on necessity, availability of job prospects, etc., but also the fact that the role of an HR executive in itself is one which is expected to innovate and establish new processes and techniques for resolution of challenges faced by an organization in the business context.

The research questions guiding the studies were two-fold:

1. How do HR professionals perceive the extent to which they are prepared to be competent in their positions?

2.How do HR Professionals deal with the challenges in their positions?

In order to answer the questions guiding the study, the researcher interviewed 12 HR professionals from small, middle-size, and large-scale companies based in Hungary and Slovakia. The participants included in the study were recruited using snowball sampling, a non-probability sampling method employed when the variable characteristics required within sample participants are difficult to define before the data itself can be collected and analyzed.

The HR professionals were contacted through information provided by their respective organizations, which had in turn been approached by the researcher at the start of the sample recruitment process. The final participants were HR employees with non-leadership positions working in senior management at junior, middle and senior levels, with experience in the industry ranging from one to ten years. Only one interviewee held an experience of more than 10 years in the field. The participants were between 22 to 41 years of age, with a mean of 27.33 years. Five participants were men and seven were women. The participants varied in their educational backgrounds, with one third of the whole sample holding formal qualifications in the HR area.

The data was collected through 40-minute interviews, either in person or through virtual communication platforms, and were conducted through the use of a series of standard questions. The topics of the interview were structured around the research questions, and were focused on four overarching themes:

1.Circumstances that promote or inhibit professional learning (e.g., What type of support did you get in order to start working?);

2.Role of the communities of practice on individual professional learning (e.g., In what circumstances did you feel welcomed whenever you asked for help?);

3. The role of the workplace in the relationship between the individual and the Community of Practice (e.g., Does the workplace provide learning opportunities?);

4.The role of the individual professional learning in the communities of practice (e.g., What ideas did you propose to the team that were later used?).

The analysis of the data revealed that informal learning, on-the-job training, and applied experience in the fields were considered the best teaching methods by many of the interviewees in terms of building skills necessary for them to be able to face their professional challenges and the expectations laid on them. Even in cases where participants had pursued further formal education avenues as a means of improving their skills, after initially having experienced their lack of preparation upon the start of their professional careers - further studies in a formal context yet again failed to resolve the most pressing issues. This hinted towards an inescapable inference. Specific knowledge imparted by systems of pedagogy can

hardly find itself sufficient today, when the basic nature of a profession demands an adaptability to constant change.

In an age when the ability to innovate and pivot one’s area of focus are the paramount demands placed upon a professional by their organization, graduates from formal training were starting their careers limited by the specific knowledge bestowed upon them by their systems of pedagogy, rather than having been trained in methods of approach towards complex problem-solving supplemented by sufficient practical training aimed at developing skill sets which may be applicable to the professional experience as a whole. Within this pilot study, those aforementioned lacking skill sets were revealed to be as foundational to a professional experience as basic communication and ‘people’ skills.

The lessons from the pilot study ultimately inspired the need to further understand the innovations in learning which working professionals and their organizations demonstrate towards achieving professional capability. Not only this but also the need to extrapolate techniques and processes which may be applied to the teaching profession.